2015 Not Starting Well for Telcom Customer Service

Oh dear. A collective shudder went up the spines of everyone who follows customer service a couple of weeks ago. It was the story about a Comcast agent who was unhappy that a customer was cancelling part of her plan. After the very unpleasant call, the agent went into the customer’s billing profile, and changed her husband’s name to “A*Hole Brown.” The customer learned of it when her next bill came addressed to that name. Here’s the story..

I was kind of hoping that maybe the worst customer service story of 2015 had come early, and that maybe it was all uphill from here. No such luck. A scant two weeks after the Comcast incident, A Bell Canada agent sent a horrible email to a customer who only gave him a “very good” on the post-call evaluation. The message: “You’re a bitch leticia and a real slut.” Here’s that story

In fairness to Comcast, they dealt with the issue quickly and without hesitation. Early indications, though, are that Bell hasn’t been quite so decisive in their actions. Their customer has stated that she doen’t think they are taking her seriously. Maybe they’re just hoping it will all blow over. Not likely. This is social media gold. These twin stories speak to the impact one single person can have on gigantic organization.

More importantly, perhaps, it highlights the importance of ensuring we have positive working environments, employee engagement and strong customer service cultures. These types of issues aren’t skill-related, they’re attitude-related. And happy, valued, engaged employees don’t typically go around abusing customers. Can anyone imagine these things happening at Disney? Four Seasons? Amazon?

About The Author

Shaun Belding is a keynote speaker on customer service, and recognized as a leading global expert on customer service, customer experience and leadership. He is author of five books on customer service, leadership and workplace success. You can find more at www.shaunbelding.com
He leads The Belding Group of Companies, a global customer experience consultancy. Their training division, Belding Training, (www.beldingtraining.com) provides award-winning customer service training to companies around the world.